The present invention relates to a vehicle safety belt retractor having a comfort assembly which relieves a tension force applied by the safety belt against the torso of an occupant of a vehicle.
A known vehicle safety belt retractor having a comfort assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,745 issued June 7, 1983 and entitled Tension Reliever For Seat Belt Retractor. The comfort assembly disclosed in this patent is manually actuated after the belt is buckled by pulling a length of belt from the retractor to provide slack in the belt and then pulling on a handle. When the handle is pulled, a pawl immediately engages a ratchet wheel to hold a belt reel against rotation in a belt retracting direction under the influence of a biasing spring. Other known safety belt retractor assemblies having comfort assemblies which are engaged by movement of a manually actuatable member are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,598,335 issued Aug. 10, 1971 and entitled Seatbelt Retractor and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,107 issued Oct. 6, 1981 and entitled Tension Relieving Selective Engagement With Memory.